Transformers names in other Hasbro lines: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 16:20, 4 September 2017
Over the years, a number of Transformers characters have shared their names with various characters and vehicles in other Hasbro lines. In many cases, this poses little to no problem for Hasbro, seeing as the company often already holds the trademark in the "toys" field, and most certainly won't take itself to court over the use of the name in question. In fact, using a name in another toy line (even one released by a Hasbro subsidiary) qualifies as a use of a trademark, hence making it "safe" for another term.
This list includes a few Takara Transformers characters as well, because why the hell not?
G.I. Joe
Army Ants
| ARMY ANTS | TRANSFORMERS |
|---|---|
| Bone Crusher | Bonecrusher |
| Black Jack | Blackjack |
| Grease Pit | Greasepit |
| Knockdown | Knockdown |
| Recoil | Recoil |
| Snarl | Snarl |
| Stalker | Stalker |
| Tail Spin | Tailspin |
C.O.P.S.
My Little Pony
Nerf/Super Soaker
Other Hasbro lines
| OTHER LINE | TRANSFORMERS |
|---|---|
| Air Raiders Wind Razor | Windrazor |
| Lite-Brite | Animated Lightbright, Generation 1 Lightbright |
| Record Breakers Afterburner | Afterburner |
| Record Breakers Fastlane | Fastlane |
| Record Breakers Lightspeed | Lightspeed |
| Record Breakers Road Grabber | Roadgrabber |
| Record Breakers Shockwave | Shockwave |
| Record Breakers Sureshot | Sureshot |
| Record Breakers Vortex | Vortex |
| Street Fighter Devastator | Devastator |
| Tribes Sky Shadow | Sky Shadow |
| Visionaries Cryotek | Cryotek |
| VOR-Tech Thunderwing | Thunderwing |
| Xevoz Quick Slinger | Quickslinger |
| Xevoz Razorclaw | Razorclaw |
| Xevoz Shadow Blade | Shadow Blade Megatron |
Notes
- G.I. Joe Sideswipe is modeled and named after Hasbro employee Andrew Frankel, who also worked on the Transformers toyline... and used the handle "Swiper" while active in TF fandom. Funny how that works out, isn't it?
- The Beast Wars name "Tarantulas" actually came from an unproduced Joe-series "Manimals" toy, Tarantulus.
- Contrary to fan rumors, the name Kobushi was NOT originally intended for an unreleased Xevoz figure. The unreleased Xevoz figure was named "Scarabushi."
- Hasbro has occasionally used names from non-Hasbro toylines that were obtained via corporate buyouts and the like for Transformers characters, with the most notable examples being Generation 2 Go-Bots, named after the GoBots toyline, and Armada Leader-1, named after the leader of the "good guy" Tonka GoBots.
- Hasbro and Tonka also shared certain names when they were still in competition. Blaster, Rumble and Warpath were both Transformers and GoBots. Similarly, "Scrapper" was registered as a trademark by Tomy's US branch in 1985 (waaaay before Tomy merged with Takara into TakaraTomy), the same year Hasbro released the Constructicon toy of the same name. That was possible because trademark law still worked differently back in the 1980s, and companies were less aggressive about protecting their products' names.
- Hasbro didn't use the name "Onslaught" for 14 years following 1994's Generation 2 Onslaught. In the meantime, Marvel had created its own Onslaught character, with Toy Biz releasing their own toys of the character (the first as part of 1997's X-Men: Onslaught line, the second as the build-a-figure from 2006's Marvel Legends Series 13). By 2007, Toy Biz had lost the Marvel license to Hasbro, and the following year saw the release of three new Transformers "Onslaught" toys as part of the Universe line. While there's no concrete evidence and this might be mere coincidence, it's possible that Hasbro's lawyers wanted to avoid a trademark conflict until they had established a business relationship with Marvel again. Hasbro subsequently released a new toy of the Marvel Onslaught character with 2010's Handful of Heroes Series 2.
- Furthermore, Hasbro released several other figures based on established Marvel characters as part of their Marvel Legends and Marvel Universe lines that share names with Transformers characters such as Venom, Spiral, Cannonball, Warpath, and Electro. They're listed down here because these characters are original Marvel properties and the toys are only produced and released by Hasbro under license. Coincidentally, the Marvel Venom character was also part of the Transformers: Crossovers line-up, though.
